Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 year banking career, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, and other major industry publications. The American Bankers Association (ABA) published Barnewall’s Profitable Private Banking: the Complete Blueprint, in 1987. She taught private banking at Colorado University for the ABA and trained private bankers in Singapore.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

POPE FRANCIS, AMERICA, AND SOCIALISM

By Marilyn MacGruder BarnewallSeptember 27, 2015NewsWithViews.com

Dear Pope Francis:

It must be a very difficult line to walk when you visit countries like Cuba which enslave their people with a communist form of government. Or countries like America which has killed more than 50 million babies in their mother’s womb.

As the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, you must question how to use your visits to such nations to the benefit of all people while making every effort to not offend yet not support the governments of these and other nations. It must be very difficult. I tremendously enjoyed and appreciated your visit to America... but have some questions and ideas.

When will the Vatican begin accepting immigrants who run away from chaos and tyranny, from death and destruction, to seek asylum in a country safer than the war-torn piece of land they seek to leave? Surely you would not suggest other nations make sacrifices that are unacceptable to your own? What will your reaction be when Muslims – most of the ones departing the Middle East appear to be young men, not families – demand “their part of the Vatican” (or Detroit or London or Paris) be governed by Sharia Law?

You appear to be a gentle and humble man. Everyone says you are truly kind and thoughtful – a holy man -- and I’m sure there is no hypocrisy in your desire for Americans and people of other nations to accept immigrants from the Middle East and for the Vatican to accept none. Thus, I’m confident you will open your doors... or, at the very least, use your influence to get governments around the world to open buildings owned by the Catholic Church so Muslim immigrants can move in and enjoy freedom and Muslim worship services.

Impossible, you say? It would disrupt the ability of the Catholic Church to function and serve the 1.2 billion Catholics who rely on Mother Church for their salvation? What, Holy Father, do you think accepting Muslims running from tyranny or Mexicans running from drug cartels does to the American and other governments? What do you think it does to average Americans when illegals from Mexico cost taxpayers $2.50 for every $1.00 they, as a group, provide in taxes? It disrupts our ability to function. It tears families apart when jobs lost to illegal Mexican workers cost American families their homes.

In all humility, I suggest you stop telling others to do that which you are not prepared to do. It damages your credibility.

I may be wrong, but wasn’t it the hypocrisy of the highest-ranking Jewish authorities that allowed (or even perhaps encouraged) the purchase of doves and “soul-saving” memorabilia to be sold on the steps of God’s Temple in Jerusalem? It caused Jesus Christ to lose His temper (the only time I believe He displayed anger) and throw the merchants who would market the Lord as if He were a product made by Proctor and Gamble or Microsoft from their Temple lemonade stands. “Oh, ye hypocrites!” were, I believe, Christ's exact words.

Holy Father, I hold you in great regard and respect. I would, however, encourage you to contemplate about things you don’t know you don’t know. I truly believe you are a good and gentle man of God who takes your role as Vicar of Christ with great humility and responsibility. I also think you believe you know things you do not know.

I encourage you to meditate on the word prelest... according to Bishop Ignatius of the Russian Orthodox Church it means “spiritual deception.” To be specific, I would suggest you ponder the words “legal immigration” and “illegal immigration” and the negative impact of illegals on the lawful citizens of any nation... often threatening the survival of the lawful to offer survival to the unlawful. Is that the Catholic objective?

As a former Catholic, I am well aware that the Church’s Catechism teaches that when people migrate from one nation to another their primary obligation is to obey the laws of their new homeland. Holy Father, how can the Catholic Church support illegal aliens who enter America by violating our laws (and the Catholic Catechism)? Is it even reasonable to tell Americans to welcome them when they are taking construction and other jobs from our own citizens who are out of work? Are you not inflating the value of those who accept the tyranny of corruption in their own land and flee it while deflating the value of those who work hard to support their families? Illegals come from poor nations and are willing to work for lower wages which takes jobs from others. This is nothing more than a ploy to redistribute wealth... a stand that suggests the Church has the approval of God to say who succeeds and who fails in life, whose families will prosper and whose will not. How can you justify that?

I am open to any answer you – or political Catholics like John Boehner or Nancy Pelosi – might offer provided it is not a political answer or a lie or lacks respect for the Constitution of the United States which disallows illegal immigration. Our legal immigration laws are the most generous in the world.

I understand the Catholic Church would like more Latinos in America because the poor to our South – Mexico and Central and South America – are Catholic (which increases the number of Catholics in America and strengthens the Church here). I go to Mass occasionally and every time I go I listen to the priest tell the faithful in attendance to welcome illegals. Until the Church rewrites its own Catechism about immigrants obeying the new homeland’s laws this message should cease. It is hypocritical to teach one thing while concurrently supporting its opposite.

Why do you suppose Muslim immigrants seek shelter only in the Christian world and not in other Muslim nations? Their governments have vowed to destroy Christianity and the nations that consider themselves Christian. Could it be a plot? I can understand why you might not be able to consider such a thing... perhaps plots are beneath the Vatican? Were I not aware of Opus Dei and P2, I might believe that.

I hope the Catholic Church and the thousands of priests who serve Mother Church give more and deeper thought to the damage done when people do not stand up to tyrannical governments and fight to remove them from power. By telling Catholics worldwide to welcome illegal aliens, the Church enables and even encourages those who run – but the greater good is best served by standing up to the tyranny from which they flee.

Too often, Americans forget they would not have this beautiful nation called America had our Founding Fathers not done that. They did not run to Canada or Mexico or South America (or Cuba) when King George put the boot of tyranny on their necks and wanted to enslave them to a British government. A rag-tag Army stood and fought the biggest and best-trained military in the world at that time – and they won. They understood that “When, in the course of human events...” a government becomes tyrannical, citizens worthy of freedom stand and fight that government.

The next logical question must be asked: If a person is not willing to stand and fight – not sit and become informed, not pray for guidance, but stand and fight for freedom while becoming informed and praying for guidance – is such a person worthy of freedom? Or is such a person more compatible with the dictates of slavery? What is slavery if not tyranny? One is a slave when forced to take vaccinations, for example. One is a slave when their freedom to live by the dictates of their religious faith places them in jail. One does not have to be forced into the cotton fields to be a slave. One can be an American who loses his or her job because government chooses not to protect its borders... jobs lost to illegal aliens causes a loss of home and family.

Today encroaching slavery results from governments that encourage young women to have children out of wedlock by providing support, increasing payment for every illegitimate and fatherless child they bring into the world which, in turn, guarantees a life of poverty – comfortable poverty. In America, about 70 percent of black babies born are born to unwed mothers who will raise this child and others they will have by coveting the money of their neighbors to support what is now defined as the new American family. You say the Church supports the family... yet you ignore the core cause for the loss of family: Welfare – which is, of course, another means of redistributing wealth (a socialist view) which you support.

I appreciated your comments about the need to support and save the concept of family... it would be helpful for you to define your terms. How does the Catholic Church define “family’?

And I appreciated your comments about the need to protect human life from the moment it is conceived until God takes that human life home. It would have been helpful had you added “from the moment it is conceived in its mother’s womb” because liberal Catholics who support abortion say they do not believe a fetus is a living human being. They think a twig that will one day grow to be a tree is a tree and should be protected, but not a baby in its mother’s womb. Nancy Pelosi is open about declaring her Catholic faith... and she and other liberal progressives consistently vote to support Planned Parenthood. The Church in no way penalizes them for their role in the death of these most innocents of the innocent.

If Your Holiness has not viewed the video tapes of people affiliated with Planned Parenthood laughing while the bones of an aborted baby are being crunched in the background so the liver and kidneys and heart and lungs can be "harvested" to sell in the marketplace, I hope you do watch it. If doves angered Jesus, I can only imagine His reaction to these barbarians.

My government uses my tax dollars to support Planned Parenthood, thus putting the blood of those innocents on every American’s hands. That is another definition of slavery to a political system run morally amok.

You are correct in calling the American system of economics “crony capitalism.” Though the American media sought to suggest that because you were raised in a South American nation you have little insight into the difference of the crony capitalism in Argentina and the capitalism we have in America. “We don’t have crony capitalism here,” said the media after your comments about America's crony capitalism and the redistribution of wealth.

Yes. We do. However, crony capitalism in America is quite different from crony socialist capitalism in various South American nations. Both are forms of slavery, but the solution to each is quite different. In America, the solution lies in taking from the hands of government the idea or thought that government creates jobs or that a privately-owned corporation called the Federal Reserve (which violates our Constitution) is required to manage our economy. Government is a user of money and jobs, not a provider of them. All forms of government share that reality with all churches.

That is why so many people are giving up on church and take seriously the words of the Christ when He told us “Seek, and ye shall find.” They have come to realize Christ did not tell them to have a pastor or a priest seek for them. They have come to realize that all churches put forth a dogma that no one really follows... like liberal democrats who vote to support Planned Parenthood and are welcomed in Catholic churches for Confession every Friday and to church services every Sunday. The same acceptance is given by Protestant churches. All churches seem more determined to see parishioners adhere to a dogma than to their spiritual growth and acceptance and growing belief in their Creator.

What is Capitalism? I suggest this is one of Your Holiness’s “don’t know you don’t know” problems. It is best defined by the philosopher who created the concept in the 1700s, Adam Smith. I suggest you read his book,Wealth of Nations. You might also find the book he wrote just prior to writingWealth of Nationsof interest,The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Properly done and properly monitored, capitalism offers a pathway from poverty to all people who believe in God, in His goodness, in themselves, and are willing to work hard. It offers a pathway out of spiritual poverty and prelest (spiritual deception).

Unfortunately, by supporting people who flee tyranny rather than supporting them to effectively fight it, churches support a lack of responsibility for fighting tyranny and the tyrants who seek to enslave us all – politically, spiritually, and economically. I believe that is not only wrong, but immoral.

Please, Holy Father, give thought to the concept that to redistribute wealth is to disobey God’s Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Covet.”

God bless you and all believers in the Holiest of Holies and mi casa su casa... have a safe journey home.

About Me

Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career in 1956 as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 years (plus) as a banker and bank consultant, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, was U.S. Consulting Editor for Private Banker International (London/Dublin), and other major banking industry publications. Barnewall taught private banking at Colorado University and has authored seven banking books, one dog book, and two works of fiction and one biography.
Barnewall is the former editor of The National Peace Officer Magazine and has written editorials for the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News and Newsweek, etc. She has written for News With Views, World Net Daily, Canada Free Press, Christian Business Daily, Business Reform, and others. She has been quoted in Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and other national and international publications. She can be found in Who's Who in America (2005-10), Who's Who of American Women (2006-10), Who's Who in Finance and Business (2006-10), and Who's Who in the World (2008).